1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to communication systems.
2. Background Art
Many modern consumer communications products incorporate multiple individual communication services. Such products include, for example, cellular phone handsets, set top boxes (STBs), and automotive infotainment systems. Example services supported by theses consumer products include cable television (CATV) service (e.g., using the Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) standards or the Digital Video Broadcasting-Cable (DVB-C/C2) standards), direct broadcast satellite (DBS) service (e.g., using the Digital Video Broadcasting-Satellite (DVB-S/S2) standards), home networking (e.g., using the Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MOCA®) 1.0, 1.1, or 2.0 standards), etc.
With multiple services incorporated in a single product, the multiple services may have to be transmitted or received over the same communications medium (e.g., same coaxial cable, wireless antennas, etc.).
Conventional multi-service transceivers use dedicated transmitter/receiver front ends per service type and/or supported service channel, with each front end including separate homodyne/heterodyne transmitter/receiver structures. As a result, conventional multi-service transceivers are area, cost, and power inefficient. In addition, conventional multi-service transceivers are difficult to customize for different product variants supporting different services and/or frequency spectrum allocations.
The present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. Generally, the drawing in which an element first appears is typically indicated by the leftmost digit(s) in the corresponding reference number.